'This is a story of diaspora and a story of immigration, but this is also very much a story about New York,' Omar Offendum says about 'Little Syria.' 'That there are people from all over the world who come here & rewrite what it means to be a New Yorker.'
The "Little Syria" creative team: L-R Thanks Joey, Omar Offendum and Ronnie MalleyJust below the World Trade Center and Liberty Park in Lower Manhattan, you’ll find Washington Street, a stretch of four relatively nondescript blocks. There’s a hotel, a Starbucks, a burger place.
The story of "Little Syria" is full of surprises, and the biggest of all — aside from the fact that there evena Little Syria — is that one of the most popular books ever published was written there. Kahlil Gibran wrote "The Prophet" on Washington Street, and he is one of the written sources for Omar Offendum’s storytelling.
The music in "Little Syria" is the work of Offendum with Ronnie Malley, who plays the Arab oud as well as piano, and the DJ and producer known as Thanks Joey, who often samples early 20th-century Arab-American recordings. The poetic heart of the project is in a bilingual song featuring words by Elia Abu Madi, a prominent literary figure in the neighborhood.
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